Learning Target: Look at your finish line. What do you need to accomplish? Learning Progressions: Can you see the end? What will your course be? Success Criteria: What supplies will you need in order to be successful? Incremental Learning Goals: Set small goals along the way so that you can see if you’re making progress (and feel good about the growth you are making). Instructional Learning Strategies: How will you prepare yourself to meet the goal? What will you need to do? Self Assessment: How will you keep track of your progress? How will you know if you are making growth? Peer Assessment: Feedback from peers can help keep you realistic and look at things from an outside perspective. Individual Success: Keep track of your progress. Make adjustments in your strategies as necessary. Targeted Feedback: Gather feedback that is specific so that your adjustments can be meaningful and make a big impact.
Group 3 The Marathon Metaphor
The Rationale
Our rationale for organizing the formative assessment process begins with the end in mind. As teachers, like competitive runners, we need to know what the end goal is before we set out on our journey. The next step would be setting learning targets. A runner, seeking to achieve a goal, would need to improve many aspects of his or her “game” in order to meet that goal. Improving lung capacity, endurance, and strength are learning targets that a runner would look to achieve in the short term, just as we break down long term goals into short term tasks and benchmarks. The next step in the journey would be incremental learning goals. We equated this to the training plan that a runner would follow, or the instructional plan that a teacher would formulate. Success criteria, the tools and gears that aid in achieving success, would come next. Those things in school might be the technology and materials that students may need to be successful. We included instructional learning strategies next, which in school would be the techniques and methods that we use for instruction. The next stage would be feedback, targeted, peer, and self. All of these different forms of feedback help us to assess our progress and make adjustments as we get closer to our goal. Finally, we end with individual success, which is the ultimate goal.
Group 2 The Marathon Metaphor
The Rationale
Target feedback-the graph shows the progress of student’s achievement Learning target-assistance along the way to reach goal (stretching, drink of water) Peer assessment-looking at others to for assistance and motivation Success criteria-measuring where are and where you want to be. Visually see the success you are making. Instructional learning strategies- using the right tools and resources to succeed Individual success- differentiating for individual learners Incremental learning goals-short objectives along the way Self assessment-How am I doing?? What do I still need to do? How can I improve? Learning progressions- end in mind ahhh. Finish line: you did it!
Group 4 The Marathon Metaphor
The Rationale
Learning Target: The standards the student is expected to meet – instruction needs to be focused toward helping the student reach the target. Important to keep the end goal in mind and in what time frame it needs to be accomplished. The challenge may seem overwhelming. To create a plan for each student to be successful – accounting for their individual strengths and needs
Learning Progressions (End in Mind): What exactly do we want the student to accomplish? What is the overall goal for the student? Is it a “one size fits all” goal? Have we set goals according to the individual? What are his/her current performance levels, how do they compare to the standards, and set goals to be achieved? This may be overwhelming to the student and seem like an impossibly long journey that they must accomplish alone. Students need assurance that they are not alone and that as their teacher you will guide them, provide assistance, and together create a plan to help them reach their goal. We can provide them with the tools they need to be successful. But students need to be part of the process and understand that they are responsible for working to the best of their ability.
Instructional Learning Strategies: The plan to achieve success is not static, but changes according to evidence of student learning. What are the tools the student is using? Is there evidence of student learning?
Incremental Learning Goals: Setting short-term goals helps students feel successful. Taking it one step at a time is more manageable and the goals seems attainable to the student. When they can feel they have accomplished the goal for today. And students see have far they have progressed, they are encouraged to continue.
Targeted Feedback: Students should reflect on their learning journey and compare the point where they began to where they are today. How has the journey been so far? What successes has the student made? What were the trouble spots? How far have they come? What strategies need to be modified for the student to be successful? Do learning targets need to be adjusted?
Self Assessment: How does the student feel about their performance? Is there a steady progression towards reaching their goal? Are they noticing a difference in their learning from where they started? Do they feel more confident and that the goal is within reach?
Peer Assessment: Everyone wants to be successful in the eyes of their peers. As a student, I want to know how I compare to my classmates. How am I viewed as a learner? Positive peer feedback can inspire the student to stay focused and work harder. Encouragement from a friend is sometimes all it takes for the student to persist towards the goal.
Individual Success: Achieving success helps to increased self-confidence and a willingness to take risks as a learner. The realization that goals can be set and achieved gives the student an internal motivational tool. Yeah!! You’ve hit the target! You can do anything!!!
Rationale: A marathon seems an impossible feat and will take forever to accomplish. For some students, learning a concept can feel the same way. But with careful planning, practice, and re-evaluating progress towards your goal, you can achieve it.
Group 1 The Marathon Metaphor
The Rationale
We began with “Learning Progressions: End in Mind” for obvious reasons. As educators, we know it is best practice to instruct with a clear vision of the finish line and that is the reason for this picture.
We moved to “Instructional Learning Strategies” with a picture of clothing and other gear you would need for a race. This picture provided an image of teaching with intent and purpose. As teachers, we need to be prepared with a variety of materials and tools to ensure that we meet the needs of all of our learners.
Next, there is a picture of Nike+ Coach to go along with “Individual Success”. We felt that since individual success is built upon the Zone of Proximal Development, it would be vital to know what each student’s zone is at the beginning of the instructional process. We felt the picture was appropriate here to show that not only can the teacher pick a “training program” for the student, but we also want the students to feel empowered to know what their zone is as well, and challenge themselves to pick appropriate activities for learning too.
We move to “Incremental Learning Goals” and the picture of the weight room. Incremental learning goals are based upon a child’s zone in the ZPD and this is why we have placed it after “Individual Success”. The weight room symbolizes meeting a child at their zone, or their level of readiness. Free weights allow you to choose the appropriate level of weight for you at that moment in time, just like we would want to meet the needs of the learner where they are at that specific moment in time.
Moving forward, we placed “Self Assessment” next. We agreed that the picture of the runner stretching during a run was an interesting model for self assessment. While learning, we should be constantly assessing our progress to ensure that we are closing the learning gaps we all have. This is consistent with the runner stretching during a run and assessing his own progress towards reaching his goal.
For “Learning Target”, we chose the picture of the mile marker post. Learning targets are a student’s performance to a certain standard. There are markers along the way to monitor a learner’s progress much like the signs on the sides of roads that mark your progress towards your travel destination.
“Targeted Feedback” is next in our story. All students need direct and targeted feedback in order to learn and grow both academically and as human beings. We used the picture of the bell game you might find at a carnival. What better game to model targeted feedback than this? If you hit the bell, you know you’ve met your goal, but if you don’t ring the bell, it would be time to get back in the weight room!
“Peer assessment” brings us close to the end of our story and we chose the picture of the shoes overlooking the valley. Yes, we are the existential group! The shoes overlooking the valley symbolize the world as our peers. Each and every day we are receiving assessment from our peers as we enter the world.
“Success Criteria” ends our story and we chose to use the picture of the person running on the graph which is marking their progress. This graph also comes complete with data showing the runner’s progress at this point in time. Learning is an ongoing process and therefore formative assessment is too. Although we may have completed our daily run, there will be another tomorrow and the process will begin all over again.
The Marathon
Metaphor
Learning Progressions: Can you see the end? What will your course be?
Success Criteria: What supplies will you need in order to be successful?
Incremental Learning Goals: Set small goals along the way so that you can see if you’re making progress (and feel good about the growth you are making).
Instructional Learning Strategies: How will you prepare yourself to meet the goal? What will you need to do?
Self Assessment: How will you keep track of your progress? How will you know if you are making growth?
Peer Assessment: Feedback from peers can help keep you realistic and look at things from an outside perspective.
Individual Success: Keep track of your progress. Make adjustments in your strategies as necessary.
Targeted Feedback: Gather feedback that is specific so that your adjustments can be meaningful and make a big impact.
The Marathon
Metaphor
The Marathon Metaphor
Learning target-assistance along the way to reach goal (stretching, drink of water)
Peer assessment-looking at others to for assistance and motivation
Success criteria-measuring where are and where you want to be. Visually see the success you are making.
Instructional learning strategies- using the right tools and resources to succeed
Individual success- differentiating for individual learners
Incremental learning goals-short objectives along the way
Self assessment-How am I doing?? What do I still need to do? How can I improve?
Learning progressions- end in mind ahhh. Finish line: you did it!
The Marathon Metaphor
Learning Progressions (End in Mind): What exactly do we want the student to accomplish? What is the overall goal for the student? Is it a “one size fits all” goal? Have we set goals according to the individual? What are his/her current performance levels, how do they compare to the standards, and set goals to be achieved? This may be overwhelming to the student and seem like an impossibly long journey that they must accomplish alone. Students need assurance that they are not alone and that as their teacher you will guide them, provide assistance, and together create a plan to help them reach their goal. We can provide them with the tools they need to be successful. But students need to be part of the process and understand that they are responsible for working to the best of their ability.
Instructional Learning Strategies: The plan to achieve success is not static, but changes according to evidence of student learning. What are the tools the student is using? Is there evidence of student learning?
Incremental Learning Goals: Setting short-term goals helps students feel successful. Taking it one step at a time is more manageable and the goals seems attainable to the student. When they can feel they have accomplished the goal for today. And students see have far they have progressed, they are encouraged to continue.
Targeted Feedback: Students should reflect on their learning journey and compare the point where they began to where they are today. How has the journey been so far? What successes has the student made? What were the trouble spots? How far have they come? What strategies need to be modified for the student to be successful? Do learning targets need to be adjusted?
Self Assessment: How does the student feel about their performance? Is there a steady progression towards reaching their goal? Are they noticing a difference in their learning from where they started? Do they feel more confident and that the goal is within reach?
Peer Assessment: Everyone wants to be successful in the eyes of their peers. As a student, I want to know how I compare to my classmates. How am I viewed as a learner? Positive peer feedback can inspire the student to stay focused and work harder. Encouragement from a friend is sometimes all it takes for the student to persist towards the goal.
Individual Success: Achieving success helps to increased self-confidence and a willingness to take risks as a learner. The realization that goals can be set and achieved gives the student an internal motivational tool. Yeah!! You’ve hit the target! You can do anything!!!
Rationale: A marathon seems an impossible feat and will take forever to accomplish. For some students, learning a concept can feel the same way. But with careful planning, practice, and re-evaluating progress towards your goal, you can achieve it.
The Marathon Metaphor
We moved to “Instructional Learning Strategies” with a picture of clothing and other gear you would need for a race. This picture provided an image of teaching with intent and purpose. As teachers, we need to be prepared with a variety of materials and tools to ensure that we meet the needs of all of our learners.
Next, there is a picture of Nike+ Coach to go along with “Individual Success”. We felt that since individual success is built upon the Zone of Proximal Development, it would be vital to know what each student’s zone is at the beginning of the instructional process. We felt the picture was appropriate here to show that not only can the teacher pick a “training program” for the student, but we also want the students to feel empowered to know what their zone is as well, and challenge themselves to pick appropriate activities for learning too.
We move to “Incremental Learning Goals” and the picture of the weight room. Incremental learning goals are based upon a child’s zone in the ZPD and this is why we have placed it after “Individual Success”. The weight room symbolizes meeting a child at their zone, or their level of readiness. Free weights allow you to choose the appropriate level of weight for you at that moment in time, just like we would want to meet the needs of the learner where they are at that specific moment in time.
Moving forward, we placed “Self Assessment” next. We agreed that the picture of the runner stretching during a run was an interesting model for self assessment. While learning, we should be constantly assessing our progress to ensure that we are closing the learning gaps we all have. This is consistent with the runner stretching during a run and assessing his own progress towards reaching his goal.
For “Learning Target”, we chose the picture of the mile marker post. Learning targets are a student’s performance to a certain standard. There are markers along the way to monitor a learner’s progress much like the signs on the sides of roads that mark your progress towards your travel destination.
“Targeted Feedback” is next in our story. All students need direct and targeted feedback in order to learn and grow both academically and as human beings. We used the picture of the bell game you might find at a carnival. What better game to model targeted feedback than this? If you hit the bell, you know you’ve met your goal, but if you don’t ring the bell, it would be time to get back in the weight room!
“Peer assessment” brings us close to the end of our story and we chose the picture of the shoes overlooking the valley. Yes, we are the existential group! The shoes overlooking the valley symbolize the world as our peers. Each and every day we are receiving assessment from our peers as we enter the world.
“Success Criteria” ends our story and we chose to use the picture of the person running on the graph which is marking their progress. This graph also comes complete with data showing the runner’s progress at this point in time. Learning is an ongoing process and therefore formative assessment is too. Although we may have completed our daily run, there will be another tomorrow and the process will begin all over again.
The Marathon Metaphor